Discover doesn't care if you have a balance as long as you're paying them.
My first "high" CL card during rebuilding was my Citi AAdvantage and I believe it started at $4,200 or right around there. I used it, and still do to this day, for everything I possible can. My main concern was the self discipline of letting everything pile up on the card and then paying it completely at the end of the month. I didn't, and probably still don't, have that type of discipline so I log on each and every day and pay it down to zero. There might be a day or two I miss throughout the month because I am busy on the weekends but other than that it is each day. So in reality I've made at least 20 payments per month to that card since it has opened and the CL is now $13,700 in just over a year and a half. This situation may not work for everyone and people may have different opinions on it but this is what works for me and I haven't had one hiccup yet.
@Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, I wasn't sure how to title this post so I will try to explain.
My credit did the rollercoaster in the last 3 years, from 700 to 400 and now back at 700 again. I have 6 cards with low limit (between $300 and $600) and a jarred at $4k, carecredit at $7k and my new discover at $8k. all my credit cards are paid in full each month and report to zero (but the carecredit at $1.5k).
I plan to use only my discover as a daily card now, but the bill can go to $3k at the end of month. My question is, should I pay my card each week or just wait a few days before statement and pay it off? Do discover would worry if they see $3k and do something? They already did a irs review when I opened my account, and I don't want to screw up my brand new relationship with them. And not sure if paying the balance in a few payments will make them worry as well.
Thanks!
Congrats on getting the verification out of the way. You should be fine as long as you pay the account on time.
@Anonymous wrote:@Anonymous Thanks for your input. So instead of paying the balance BEFORE statement cut, I should wait and pay right after? I thought it was better when it reports to $0.
Right now I transfer weekly on another checking account the funds needed to pay the balance in full.
Best for points, best for likelihood of CLI, and best for your processing can be entirely different things. Best for points is reportining a minimal balance on one card at a time (~9% aggregate utilization, ~29% for that card). Best for likelihood of a CLI is probably using heavily and paying once a month (although the bank does know how much you're spending with them at any given time, letting it build up lets it be known that you're up to 50% of your limit instead of only ever hitting 5% and paying it). Best for your processing could be paying off each charge as it comes in because it keeps your actual bank account live and you know everything is accounted for.
Different strokes and all that.
as of 1/1/23
I have had both payment patterns on different cards at different times, and I have not noticed an overall benefit either way. Caveat, my profile is pretty weird. But, I have made multiple payments per month on, for example, PayPal (Sync), and it's grown well; I've made multiple payments per month on Discover, and it has hardly grown. Lots more examples I could cite where the results seem somewhat random. My Discover is a formerly secured card, so I guess I am at the kids' table in their eyes. I've thought about opening a new Discover card and closing this one to get around de facto bucketing, but worried that it wouldn't work, and I'd just have a new account for no good reason. If you ever figure out how Discover makes decisions, write a book. It'll sell well here. I would theorize that they have chicken races or perhaps it's based on the third letter of the first name of whoever delivers the pizza.
